Latest Brain Stories

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online
One of the earliest primates, Purgatorius, was a small, rodent-like mammal thought to have lived along forest floors after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
However, a new study – based on the creatures’ ankle bones from researchers at Yale University – has found that these "proto-primates" actually lived in trees. Researchers had suspected that Purgatorius lived in trees at one point, but thought they started out on the ground....

Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna have identified the mechanisms used by the spinal cord to trigger activity in leg muscles, marking the first time that the spinal cord activation patterns responsible for walking have been successfully decoded.

By using a different type of MRI imaging scan, researchers have located previously undetected differences in the brains of patients suffering from bipolar disorder, a psychiatric conditions that affects approximately one percent of the population.

A neurodegenerative disease similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, that typically impacts sheep and goats has the potential to affect humans, according to a new paper published earlier this month in the journal Nature Communications.

The cerebellum is a section of the brain that is most in charge of cognitive functions and motor skills.
Formation and Orientation
The cerebellum can be found at the bottom of the brain behind the pons and below that cerebral cortex under a layer of dura mater. It is considered as a part of the "hindbrain". The cerebellum is anatomically divided into two separate hemispheres, marked by the 'vermis', a small midline zone between the left and right hemispheres. But three lobes can be...

The midbrain, also known as the mesencephalon is the part of the brain most responsible for vision, motor control, arousal, temperature regulation, alertness and hearing.
Formation and Orientation
The midbrain is found under the cerebral cortex and above the hindbrain. The mesencephalon is not divided into any other portions of the brain unlike the other two vesicles that stem from the neural tube.
There are four separate lobes on the side of the cerebral aqueduct within the...

Formation and Orientation
The development of the brain is broken down into stages. The basic evolution begins in the third week of the embryonic process where the neural plate is formed. By week four, the neural plate has developed into the neural tube. The anterior part of the tube, the telencephalon, grows rapidly as it prepares to later give way to the brain. As time goes on, cells begin to classify themselves as either neurons or glial cells, thus determining their functions.
Glial...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.